Everyone should have cathartic moments-- those times when we are overwhelmed by emotions until we reach a point of clarity.

I try to make sure that the people around me, the ones I let into my life, are honest with me and themselves. If they aren't, and I care about them enough, I will confront them and challenge them to be real. That's what happened this weekend with someone very close to me.

Challenges are never easy, or else they wouldn't be called "challenges." After my friend listened to me tell him he was "boring," he stormed out of the restaurant. I thought that because I could tell he had not been himself for some time. His passion had waned, and he became a person of rote and habit. I went after him, got him to listen to my argument only to convict myself of my lack of passion for what I've been trying to do, which is sell the book I just wrote.

It might not be easy to speak the truth, or say what we really think, but when we do our personal growth is imminent.

So, in the process of trying to help my friend, I found in myself the same flaw of becoming "boring." And I realized the having a success that is truly satisfying must have our passion involved. I've been passionless.

In the big picture, I can see where my efforts will lead me if I keep them up. But the satisfaction of my success can only manifest if my passion precedes those efforts. Now, I have a growing passion to prove to myself while my parents are still alive that I can accomplish what I want in spite of my upbringing. I used to want to prove it to my parents, but that was a miserable state of mind. Proving it to oneself shows solidarity and independence. There's freedom in that.

Whatever we have become slave to, we must overcome. But the only way we will know we are enslaved is if we open up to the truth, unafraid and unashamed. Carpe diem.